Holy Rule for December 28
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St. Mary's Monastery
Dec 27, 2025, 5:00:14 PM12/27/25
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Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 28, August 28, December 28
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random
Every occasion of presumption shall be avoided in the monastery, and we decree that no one be allowed to excommunicate or to strike any of her sisters unless the Abbess has given her the authority. Those who offend in this matter shall be rebuked in the presence of all, that the rest may have fear. But children up to 15 years of age shall be carefully controlled and watched by all, yet this too with all moderation and discretion. All, therefore, who presume without the Abbess' instructions to punish those above that age or who lose their temper with them, shall undergo the discipline of the Rule; for it is written, "Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tobias 4:16).
REFLECTION
"Every occasion of presumption shall be avoided in the monastery." This is about a lot more than saying who can punish whom. This is pointing out that, whenever more than one are to be considered, we must think of the others. This is about central authority, yes, but it is also about the total way one conducts oneself in a home or workplace or planet that others share.
Ever think about your first home away from your parents’ house? It was probably different in a lot of ways, especially if you lived there alone. Heady freedom that! I recall my own first place very well and fondly. However, I can assure you, I could not have lived as I did there had I been in a family, with younger siblings at home. (OK, it was 1969, so go figure...) Even alone, however, I was not free to play my stereo at undue volumes at 3 AM. We live on a common planet, at some point ALL of our lives touch others. When they do, control of some sort is necessary if people are to live in peace.
There is a great and treacherous myth of individualism among Americans and, to a lesser extent, I think, among all Western European cultures. Consumerism and secularism at levels which are dangerously opposed to religion promote this fallacy at every turn. The lie is told that one can be happy, even happiest, without Christ, without religion. Even Christians subconsciously buy into more of this nonsense than they often realize. This baggage sneaks up on us in very subtle ways. We must be equally watchful and cautious to perceive it!
Some non-western cultures have a much more highly developed sense of sharing and commonality. The stresses of profit and production are incongruous to many a more pristine culture. The self is less exalted than the common good and the common good seems to be more readily available to all. Face it, when the Amazon hunters come home, the elderly eat as well as anyone else.
Schweitzer pointed out that Europeans found the Africans lazy, because they would not work to a point of exhaustion without need. They worked all right, but when the work was done, they quit. They had a casual and natural attitude to work, proper to their own economic system, that drove the Europeans nuts, because the latter had more of a 40-hours-a-week-and-then-you-rest notion. Both Schweitzer and I tend to side with the natives on this one!
That myth of total freedom, of self-sufficiency being able to buy one the right to any activity is totally wrong. Even at 20, in my richly bohemian digs that I called "Shackri-la", I was not totally free. I didn't know it back then, but I wasn't. I had no right to waste water or leave lights on all night or drive drunk. My fantasy might have been chronologically appropriate as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, but hey, even there, even then, people were not free in a total sense. None of us are, we must think of others.
Every presumed domain of our control which exists on a planet shared by billions is just that: presumption, of which "every occasion shall be avoided." None of us is an island. Our complete interdependence is not only objective fact, it is our only hope.
You might never have read this chapter as an ad for ecological consciousness, but look at the first line again. We are ALWAYS in this with others and that always means responsibilities to "...not do to another what one would not have done to oneself."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
Br. Jerome Leo’s Daily Reflection on the Holy Rule
April 28, August 28, December 28
Chapter 70: That No One Venture to Punish at Random
Every occasion of presumption shall be avoided in the monastery, and we decree that no one be allowed to excommunicate or to strike any of her sisters unless the Abbess has given her the authority. Those who offend in this matter shall be rebuked in the presence of all, that the rest may have fear. But children up to 15 years of age shall be carefully controlled and watched by all, yet this too with all moderation and discretion. All, therefore, who presume without the Abbess' instructions to punish those above that age or who lose their temper with them, shall undergo the discipline of the Rule; for it is written, "Do not to another what you would not want done to yourself" (Tobias 4:16).
REFLECTION
"Every occasion of presumption shall be avoided in the monastery." This is about a lot more than saying who can punish whom. This is pointing out that, whenever more than one are to be considered, we must think of the others. This is about central authority, yes, but it is also about the total way one conducts oneself in a home or workplace or planet that others share.
Ever think about your first home away from your parents’ house? It was probably different in a lot of ways, especially if you lived there alone. Heady freedom that! I recall my own first place very well and fondly. However, I can assure you, I could not have lived as I did there had I been in a family, with younger siblings at home. (OK, it was 1969, so go figure...) Even alone, however, I was not free to play my stereo at undue volumes at 3 AM. We live on a common planet, at some point ALL of our lives touch others. When they do, control of some sort is necessary if people are to live in peace.
There is a great and treacherous myth of individualism among Americans and, to a lesser extent, I think, among all Western European cultures. Consumerism and secularism at levels which are dangerously opposed to religion promote this fallacy at every turn. The lie is told that one can be happy, even happiest, without Christ, without religion. Even Christians subconsciously buy into more of this nonsense than they often realize. This baggage sneaks up on us in very subtle ways. We must be equally watchful and cautious to perceive it!
Some non-western cultures have a much more highly developed sense of sharing and commonality. The stresses of profit and production are incongruous to many a more pristine culture. The self is less exalted than the common good and the common good seems to be more readily available to all. Face it, when the Amazon hunters come home, the elderly eat as well as anyone else.
Schweitzer pointed out that Europeans found the Africans lazy, because they would not work to a point of exhaustion without need. They worked all right, but when the work was done, they quit. They had a casual and natural attitude to work, proper to their own economic system, that drove the Europeans nuts, because the latter had more of a 40-hours-a-week-and-then-you-rest notion. Both Schweitzer and I tend to side with the natives on this one!
That myth of total freedom, of self-sufficiency being able to buy one the right to any activity is totally wrong. Even at 20, in my richly bohemian digs that I called "Shackri-la", I was not totally free. I didn't know it back then, but I wasn't. I had no right to waste water or leave lights on all night or drive drunk. My fantasy might have been chronologically appropriate as Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco, but hey, even there, even then, people were not free in a total sense. None of us are, we must think of others.
Every presumed domain of our control which exists on a planet shared by billions is just that: presumption, of which "every occasion shall be avoided." None of us is an island. Our complete interdependence is not only objective fact, it is our only hope.
You might never have read this chapter as an ad for ecological consciousness, but look at the first line again. We are ALWAYS in this with others and that always means responsibilities to "...not do to another what one would not have done to oneself."
Br. Jerome Leo Hughes, OSB (RIP)
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